ll nor low; her air was stately, her manner of
speaking kind and obliging. That day she was dressed in white silk,
bordered with pearls of the size of beans, and over it a mantle of black
silk, shot with silver threads ... Instead of a chain, she had an oblong
collar of gold and jewels."[61]

[Illustration: QUEEN CLEOPATRA, AS REPRESENTED ON THE ENGLISH STAGE IN
THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.]

These descriptions of her by Melville and Hentzner are supplemented, in
highly characteristic fashion, not only by such fancy portraits as the
one alluded to before, where she is represented as a shepherdess, a
nymph, an imaginary being from Arcady, from mythology, or from nowhere,
but by such grave, dignified, official portraitures as the very fine
engraving left by Rogers. Round the sharp-featured face, with closed,
wilful lips, weary eyes, open, intelligent forehead, lace ruffs of
various shapes, some very bushy, some quite flat and round-shaped like
butterfly wings, are displayed in most imposing array. No imaginable
kind of gum or starch could keep them straight; they were spread on iron
wires. The gown itself, of cylindric shape, expanded by means of a
farthingale, is covered with knobs, knots, pearls, ribbons, fringes, and
ornaments of all sorts. Well does this figure deserve the attention of
the student of Shakespeare, for in this and no other fashion was
Cleopatra, the Egyptian queen, dressed, when she appeared on the boards
of the Globe Theatre. Never did the author of "Antony" dream of
Denderah's temple, and of the soft, voluptuous face, peacock-covered,
representing there Isis-Cleopatra; but he dressed his Egyptian queen as
the queen he had known had been dressed, and it was in the costumes of
Rogers' engraving, and most appropriately too, that the Cleopatra of the
Globe was heard to make the remarkable proposal, "Let's to
billiards."[62]

Does this seem very strange or in any way incredible? But we must
remember that many years, nay, several centuries, were to elapse before
anything like historical accuracy was to affect dresses on the stage.
Another Cleopatra trod the boards of the English theatre in the
eighteenth century; she was very different from her Elizabethan elder
sister; she wore _paniers_ and a Louis XV. wig, and, as may be seen in
our engraving, came in no way nearer the model at Denderah.

[Illustration: SKETCHES MADE BY INIGO JONES IN ITALY.]

[Illustration: INIGO JONES'S PERSIANS STANDING AS CARYATIDES.